The video game industry is still suffering Epic Games announcement on September 28 It will lay off approximately 900 employees. If the developers are in fortnite The money printing plant is not safe, and neither is anyone. In perhaps the worst timing ever for microtransactions, fortniteThe “Share The Wealth” emote was once again available for sale in the in-game store in Battle Royale later that day.
It didn’t take fortnite News accounts like Guille_GAG, which has long found that the emoji is back to cap off a day full of bleak news. “Epic has reinstated Share the Wealth Emote immediately after firing 900 of its employees…” chirp. “Epic Games is under fire for selling the ‘Share the Wealth’ Emote in today’s Item Shop cycle – just hours after laying off 830 employees,” FortniteBR Instagram account to publish.
It appears that the expression, which was added to the game earlier this year in Chapter 4: Season 3, was only briefly on sale before being removed. according to FortniteBR Others, the emote was removed when Epic removed the entire Daily Rotation tab from the store shortly after the emote was published.
A company spokesman said Kotaku In an email stating that the “Share The Wealth” emoji was previously scheduled. “The emoji was removed when we realized the error approximately one hour into the live stream,” they wrote. Epic Games Acknowledge the missing feature on Twitter He said he will return during the next item shop update.
“We are spending more money than we are making,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney wrote in an email to employees announcing the layoffs. It was an odd invocation of the royal “we,” considering that the CEO then proceeded to list acquisitions, expansions and other business initiatives, such as growth fortnite As a Metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators, most of the people who were laid off probably had no say in it.
It’s not clear what kind of salary Sweeney and other executives at the company receive. Epic remains a privately held company, so it doesn’t have to disclose any of that information. Sweeney has again pushed the concept of a wealth tax in the past, Claiming that it would punish people like him by forcing them to sell shares in their companies any time they became more valuable. While the larger company remains a black box, we know it fortnite to make 9 billion dollars In its first two years, Epic continues to achieve successBillions of dollars in revenue annually from player purchases“.
News of Epic’s layoffs has renewed questions about how companies will handle cost-cutting, and who will feel the pain first when the economic gamble doesn’t pay off. People often remember Symbolic pay cuts for late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata When his companies’ products underperformed, such as the 3DS and Wii U. Some other gaming CEOs have undergone similar compensation cuts in recent years, including Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Activision. Ratio Millions earned in company stockHowever, Salary haircuts often seem like a pittance in comparison.
“The fact that I was laid off from Epic while being treated for skin cancer shook me out of an unsound sleep, and I don’t think there are words to express how angry I am at the company, the leadership, their greed…all of it.” a former Epic employee tweeted overnight. Meanwhile, Epic is still burning money on things like the Epic Games Store, its Steam competitor, which offers players free games. The latest freebie is an action RPG game Solsticewhich is usually listed at $40.
“Saying goodbye to the people who helped build Epic is a terrible experience for everyone,” Sweeney wrote in his email to employees. “The consolation is that we receive adequate funding to support laid-off employees: we offer a severance package that includes six months of base pay and in the US/Canada/Brazil six months of paid health care from Epic.”
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